Saturday, November 26, 2005

Of Good Wishes, Merry Moments and Kris Kringle's First Single!

Merry Christmas, Mortals!

I must pause here in the ol' Diary of Magecraft to pay my own humble respects and offer my own good wishes to the Chamberlain Family of Albany. Stephen and Suzanne Chamberlain have four wonderful children; Mary, the eldest, has cerebral palsy, and is confined to a wheelchair. As the world knows by now, some 72 hours ago, without meaning to, Mary and her 11-year-old sister Sarah made headlines all across the Planet, when the M&M's Chocolate Candies balloon shattered a lamppost in the Times Square area where the family had positioned themselves!

The occasion, of course, was Macy*s 79th Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade --- and when the lamppost fell on Mary and Sarah, it did not take long before NYPD and FDNY/EMS personnel responded immediately to rescue them. Thank goodness, both girls only suffered minor injuries! As Stephen himself later commented, "Someone was obviously looking out for us." Being a Wizard, I would, of course, suspect my seven Wizardly superiors, the High Istari --- but when I checked with them, their reaction was the usual: "You, of all Mages, know better than to question Miracles, Master Blackwolf! Shame on you!" Sorry, guys!

Anyway, Macy*s was nice enough to have Santa visit the four Chamberlain kids before the doctors at Bellevue released them after they'd treated their injuries; Sarah, just yesterday, said that the M&M's balloon was a very important part of the Parade. And she wanted the hole in it patched up so the family could see it again next year.

Well, y'know what, Sarah? There's a reason Macy*s calls its Thanksgiving Day Parade a "holiday treat for children everywhere;" and needless to say, children ARE what this Parade is really all about in the end. That is why, not only will they find a way to fix up that balloon, next year, you and Mary and your Mom and Dad, along with your older brother Matt and your other sister Cate will all get to see the Parade from the VIP section --- because you and Mary were very, very brave on Thanksgiving Day. As for you, Mortals of Albany, NY and the Capital Region: I, Blackwolf the Dragonmaster, am especially counting on ALL OF YOU to be especially nice to the Chamberlain Family, because, like Santa himself, I want to make sure that these wonderful people get absolutely EVERYTHING they've ever wanted for Christmas!

By the way, shame on you, Brad Lachman, for making Katie, Matt and Al stick to the script while all this was going on! Really, I would think that the man behind Solid Gold would want to patch in with NBC sibling network MSNBC so that the folks watching across the country could find out the condition of those two kids. You'll have to do a lot better and work a lot harder if you wish me to link to www.bradlachmanprods.com!

Well, enough about that --- because ABC Carpet & Home's resident Santa recently went to Nashville to record his first CD and single! Oh yes! The CD album and single are both called You've Got to Believe --- and the band is called (you're gonna love this!) Santa and the Toymakers! John Tumminello is Santa's writer-producer elf, and he runs Nashville-based 3 Minute Records, where a lot of this was recorded --- and singing with Santa are none other than Elvis' legendary backup vocal group, the Jordanaires! (Cool, huh?)

Anywho, SantaandtheToymakers.com has the whole story about the album and the single and how you can get your hands on a copy; proceeds will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Children's Aid Society, the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation and Santa's own You've Gotta Believe Foundation, which supports young needy would-be musicians in Nashville and Staten Island, New York City, by providing to children's hospitals in both cities funds for music lessons, equipment, et al. Truly, it is a wonderful project --- and I, for one, am looking forward to seeing it put together, hopefully next Christmas, as a music video!

Meanwhile, I have to wrap things up here for now. Master Richard has to get back to his civilian garb; as Santa promised him yesterday that he would bring the lad a promo copy of the whole album, or, at the very least, the single. I'll post a review here in the ol' Diary of Magecraft as soon as I can --- and, oh yes, this week, I name names in the parent Dark Chambers homepage, and tell you who will be my 2005 Bonus Link of the Year! Pray, as ever, stay ye tun'd!